Tobacco is a product prepared by curing the leaves of the tobacco plant. The plant is categorized within the genus Nicotiana of the Solanaceae (nightshade) family. There are over 70 species of tobacco. Once of the main commercial tobacco crops is N. tabacum. Another species, N. rustica, is also widely used around the world. Tobacco contains the alkaloid nicotine, a stimulant. Dried tobacco leaves are mainly smoked in cigarettes, cigars, pipe tobacco, and flavored shisha tobacco. They are also consumed as snuff, chewing tobacco, and dipping tobacco.
Tobacco addiction is a major health problem in the United States, accounting for more preventable illnesses and deaths than any other single factor. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), cigarette smoking causes more than 480,000 deaths each year in the Unites States alone, or about one in five deaths. Tobacco use is a major cause of death from cancer, cardiovascular disease, and pulmonary disease. Tobacco addiction is also a major health problem worldwide.
Smoking-caused disease is a consequence of exposure to toxins in tobacco smoke and nicotine delivered though tobacco products sustains addictive tobacco use, which in turn causes much premature disability and death. In many cases, those who attempt to quit smoking have cravings and discomfort upon the cessation of tobacco, which are sustained by the nicotine addiction. These cravings and discomfort are some of the reasons why, despite knowing the health risks associated with smoking, many users continue to smoke cigarettes as well as use other products containing nicotine.
About 40 percent of smokers in the United States try to quit every year. Success rates are meager as only 3 to 6 percent of those attempting to quit succeed in avoiding smoking for 6 to 12 months, while the majority of quit attempts fail within the first 8 days. As of mid-2015, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved nicotine replacement therapy (NRT), and a few other drugs, as smoking-cessation medications, all with success rates at the end of one year falling short of 25%.
Therefore, a need exists to overcome the problems with the prior art as discussed above, and particularly for a more efficient way of alleviating cravings and discomfort associated with cessation of tobacco use sustained by nicotine addiction.